A 20-Year-Old Contractor Explains How Real Site Work Gets Done with Luke Alec Palmer, Palmer Excavation

0:00Welcome to Epic Entrepreneurs. I am Cliff McRae with Action Coach Business Growth Partners. Every week, we sit down with business owners, founders, and leaders to uncover the real stories behind building a successful business. The wins, the setbacks, the lessons learned, and the strategies that help them grow. No scripts, no fluff, just honest conversations with entrepreneurs who are in the trenches every single day. Whether you are a business owner yourself, thinking about starting a business, or simply enjoy hearing how successful people think and operate, you are in the right place. Let's jump into today's episode, shall we?

0:58All right, everyone. Welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. I am Cliff McRae with Action Coach Business Growth Partners, where we work with local business owners to turn big ideas into real scalable growth. Today, I'm excited to be joined by Luke Palmer with Palmer Excavation. Luke, how are you doing today? I'm doing well, Bill. How are you? I'm doing wonderful. You're a company that's helping property owners and contractors move forward through excavation, grading, land clearing, drainage, demolition, and related site work. We're very excited to have you. So if you don't mind, let's go ahead and jump right into it.

1:31Yeah, excited to be here. All right, perfect. So Luke, when a customer first calls polymer excavation, what kind of project are they usually trying to solve and where does your team add the most value? Yeah, so right now in the summertime, the most calls I've been getting are for drainage issues. So from that first call, we assess the situation. So typically I have the customer just send me pictures of the site of what we're looking at, and then we'll move forward from there. I like to go from the approach of asking the customer, what are three different times that would work best for you to meet?

2:08Because typically I can take those three times, figure out which one works best for me and my schedule, and then we can move forward from there on a site job walk. Okay, okay. Gotcha, gotcha. So that's what you're providing business-wise. Now, who is Luke Palmer as a person? What do you have going on in your personal life? Yeah, so right now, the season I'm in, I'm a fiance, and I'm planning on getting married on August 17th. So I'm very, very busy into wedding planning currently. As hobbies, I enjoy the outdoors, hiking, fishing, all that sort of stuff. I'm deep into youth ministry as well, and that's a very big passion of mine as a Christian.

2:49Love it, love it. Now, what did your path look like before Palmer Excavation, you know, and what pushed you pushed you towards business ownership? Yeah. So growing up, my dad, he's a general contractor. And so from a young age, I've been homeschooled my whole life. And so on my free time, I would go with him to job sites and learn the business world, learn what it was to be an entrepreneur and what that looked like and also the freedom that it provided and also the challenges. And so growing up, looking at that, I fell in love with it. And so out of high school, I started a lawn care business.

3:29That went great. I loved it. But in the course of growing to get married, I learned that I need more money to provide. And so it was kind of following a passion trail and a money trail. And eventually that led me to Palmer Excavation. Okay. I love that. I love that. Now, excavation is one of those businesses where the work, people see it only part of the job. What goes into planning a project before the first machine ever touches the ground? That's exactly it. A lot of customers are shocked by the amount of time I'm on site versus the amount of time I actually spend working on their job. So before I ever touch base on the job site, I've already spent time researching the area, the area codes, all the digging permits I might need for that job, the supplies needed, and different angles that we could attack the job at.

4:25So before I've ever shook your hand, we've already gone over, in my mind, at least several different possibilities for that job site. And then behind-the-scenes work, after we decide on a project and a path forward, it's hours worth of planning and buying materials, getting that job site ready to move forward in a fluid motion. Okay, okay. I appreciate you answering that very thoroughly. now what is the biggest challenge your business is facing right now as a business i would say my biggest challenge would one be publicity but two would be my age i'm 20 years old and so in a way it kind of feels like a lot is pitted against you starting out this young as an entrepreneur but it has a lot of fun challenges to tackle the most notable of which would be that when you're young, a lot of people don't like to hand you a big check.

5:24And excavation is not a, I'd say, cheap job. So it entails large amounts of money at some points. So the biggest thing for me has been how can I make myself as credible as possible and provide the most amount of trust between myself and the customer? Okay, okay. Great. Now, following up on that a little bit more, do people, because of your age, because of how young you are, like you said, do sometimes people not take you serious? Do you have issues with that or is that not a problem? When I started out with the lawn care business, I would have that from time to time. But as I've grown older and have spent more time really learning the business side of things, how to market, how to put myself forward to other people, that hasn't been an issue as much.

6:13That's a good piece of advice. So, you know, kind of to follow up that, you know, a little bit more, because we had another young entrepreneur on, I think it was a couple of weeks ago, and he talked about that as well. That's why I kind of kind of follow up with that, maybe to help some other young entrepreneurs out. What would be the biggest piece of advice you would give to a young entrepreneur to get taken seriously in front of, you know, big business or, you know, other big business people in other businesses and stuff like that? What would you give that? What advice would you give them? Well, I would say first and foremost, make yourself as credible as possible.

6:46So what I've done there is I'm making a licensed and insured LLC business. So off the gate, they know I'm not some hack job. I've actually put myself in the business as well legally. But there's also learning, okay, these are the steps I can take to grow my mental credibility as well. So I spend probably 15 to 20 hours a week on podcasts learning all the different things, whether that be spiritual education or business education. I'm also a member of BNI, the Palmetto Business Exchange Group here in Simpsonville. And that has grown me tremendously, surrounding myself with business-minded people that are decades ahead of myself.

7:33It's constantly pushing me up to their level. And so I've been a part of that group for a little less than a year and a half now. And I can see the growth in myself from when I began at 18 to now. Love it. Love it. All right. So, you know, what do you believe is preventing your business from reaching its next level? Age, I think. So not just myself, but also the age of the business. So as I said, I'm young, which means my business is also young. So I started polymer excavation in January, but that's not where my excavation background started. At a high school at 18, I began working for a forestry foundation and learning how to install septic systems, do land clearing, grading, all of that sort of work.

8:23So my background in excavation is a lot longer than my business, but that is definitely a driving factor with the publicity side of things. Gotcha. Okay, that makes perfect sense. Now, what is something people assume is easy about running Palmer excavation type of business that is actually very difficult? I would also have to say publicity. A lot of people think that when you start an entrepreneurial business, that the jobs are just going to come to you, that they'll fall in your lap. And that's not the case. You have to actively pursue them, pursue relationships. A lot of times it can be as easy as an$8 coffee and a handshake, but many times it takes months of grinding and finding people, finding connections, reaching out, sometimes multiple times, until you make that one handshake that switches everything.

9:12And in a way, you're set. Okay, okay. Now, what separates a properly planned grading or drainage job from one that creates expensive problems later, would you say? Prep work. So, a rule of thumb in excavation is that you cannot afford to do it right twice. You have to do it right once. So that means that your prep work takes the majority of your time. The backfill of a job is typically my quickest part. So I'll spend, right now I'm working on an irrigation install. I'm spending two days on the digging and the pipe work before I ever do any backfill or grading. So just making sure that You check everything.

10:02I like to laser level if I do any grading. And so I'm double, triple checking that, making sure my grade is correct. Water's going to flow where it needs to flow, that there's not going to be any puddles that I would later have to come back and fill up. And about how many hours a week are you working in and out of the business right now? In the business, I would say I'm pulling anywhere from 40 to 50 hours on a heavy week. okay all right well that's good that's healthy i mean it's not nothing you know outrageous or anything you're working a pretty pretty typical week which is good have you had to have you had to scale to get to that point or were you working more hours when you first started yeah when i first started it was very slow i would say i was working probably 15 to 20 hours initially and i was pretty discouraging starting out knowing that i had more potential than i was giving but it was knowing, okay, this is a waiting game.

10:55I will reap the rewards of this eventually. And it's slowly beginning to. Okay. Okay. Love that. Now, what would you say is your greatest strength as a business owner? A hundred percent my faith. I trust the Lord for everything he provides. And he has done a lot in the business, not only growing it, but myself as well. And the tools He's given me to do that. I love to have a positive faith-based mindset in things, and that helps me a lot, especially in instances where customers are a little bit more hot-headed than me. And I always take it back to treating everyone as Christ would treat them. And that has helped me a lot.

11:37It also helps me to put forth a Christ-centered mindset to situations and not become discouraged when a job might not go as planned. But knowing that He's in control and it will eventually work out for the better. I love that. I love that. Now, what would you say is one leadership or business skill you know you need to still improve? Leadership or business skill. I would say my marketing would definitely have to be the one I have to improve. Knowing how to reach people. I'm learning the side of talking pretty well and I'm happy with how I'm progressing there, but it's reaching the people. That's the part I need to grow on.

12:23Okay, that's fair. That's fair. Now, Luke, how do you balance keeping expensive equipment productive without or with avoiding the temptation to take the wrong jobs? Yeah, so I have a policy that I always pray about every customer before I sign a contract. So for me, that looks like, do I feel peace on the job site talking to you? Is it someone that I would like to do business with? Growing up, looking at my dad, he did the exact same thing. And so that really became a great role model for me, looking at that, knowing that my dad did that and he was okay, showed me that that's the step I need to take forward.

13:05And that's really helped me. Now, not to say that I haven't had customers that have been more challenging. I have, but that has also showed me personality traits to avoid. And so it's a good balance there of using your brain, using your mind to assess the person, but also trusting the Lord and that peace inside of you. Yeah, that's true. You'll kind of know based off an initial conversation. I've dealt with somebody like that. They're usually a little difficult. I probably will avoid that. That's kind of what you're saying. Absolutely. That's good advice. I appreciate that. Now, why do customers choose you instead of another provider?

13:46What are you doing better than your competition? Would you say? I would say showing up to the job site, Bill. It's been shocking seeing how many people I show up to their job and they'll be like, man, I'm so grateful that you actually showed up. And not only that, I've found that if I'm late, even one or two minutes late, sending a quick text saying, I am so sorry, I'm running two minutes late, I'll be there at 9.02. That improves their trust in you more than a handshake will, because they're seeing, oh, he's worried about being two minutes late, not just being on time. And so that's been the most shocking thing for sure is seeing how many people are okay with not showing up when they've given their word to someone.

14:33Yeah, it's, it's extremely true. And, you know, I can, I can vouch for that, you know, doing what I do here, you know, talking with business owners all the time, you know, you'd be shocked how people, how many people just, you know, sign up for, like, let's say we have a lot of people that come and, you know, want to be initially want to be guests on the podcast and they're all happy and everything sounds great. And you think, man, this is going to be a great episode. The day comes and crickets and I hear nothing. And it's like, yeah, what happened? Like this is free marketing, you know, and you all literally were just having you show up and talk about your business.

15:06And you have no idea how many people just don't show up for this. And then they just vanish off the face of the earth. You're calling them, you text them, Hey, are you going, are you able to make it to the podcast? And they just ghost you. It's wild. Wow, that's discouraging. Yeah, it is. But it's like you said, that's that's just what life is now. So we kind of gotten used to it now. So yeah. So moving on, though. But when a qualified lead comes in, how confident are you that it becomes a customer? I would put myself in the 60 to 70 percentile range. I'm pretty confident based off the initial phone call how eager the customer is to get the job done.

15:45But it really comes through after that job walk, seeing how well they like the job, that they are receptive to the advice I'm giving, and also that awkward conversation of, okay, what's your timeline, but also what's your budget? I make sure those two pinpoints are always covered because I don't want to waste your time and I don't want you to waste my time. And so if you're thinking that a$5 ,000 job is going to cost$2 ,000 or a$10 ,000 job is going to cost$4 ,000, there's just no room to work there. So I like that one to weed out the customers that aren't serious. Now, tell us a little bit about the team.

16:28Well, actually, do you have a team or is it just you by yourself or do you have a team of folks? Yeah, I currently don't. It's just myself. So I've been running solo for about two years now. And I love working alone. But, you know, as the business grows, eventually I'll definitely be hiring a ditchman to help me level out stuff and do the stuff that I can't as I'm running the excavator. Okay. Right. All right. Now, let's and this is hypothetical, but let's say if the business doubled overnight suddenly, what is the very first thing that would break and you would have to solve? the first thing i would have to break is probably my bidding but also back market bookkeeping so the first thing i would probably do to solve that would be to hire a bookkeeper and get someone that can manage that side of things which would free up a lot of time for me to be able to focus on giving the best product forward to my customers and to put myself forward in the best light that I can and making sure I'm still getting the rest I need to perform the job right.

17:43Okay that's fair all right perfect all right so we're gonna head to what's called the quickfire round so how this works is I'm going to give you two words I'm going to give you basically like something like mountain or beach something like that right two two two selections that you can make. I want you to choose one and then I want you to give me a kind of a small paragraph of why you chose that. Does that make sense? Okay. Yeah. All right. Perfect. All right. So mountain or beach? Mountain for sure. I grew up in Northern California, going to the Trinity Alps, hiking with my dad. I fell in love with it and I miss it a lot here living in the South, but I love the beach as well, but it would have to be mountains.

18:20Coffee or energy drink? Energy drink for now I love coffee but energy drinks Tied me over better Okay Early bird or night owl Early bird I love getting up and feeling accomplished Throughout the day I tend to feel groggy if I stay up too late Ford, Chevy or Dodge Ford for sure I grew up with my dad having two Fords And I love them as America's truck okay okay i like that backhoe or excavator excavator so much more versatile you can get so much more done with it and you're really never going to get it stuck blueprint or wing it i prefer the blueprint style i'm a very prepared person so i like to think through every possibility of how the job could go job site or office job site i love the office i love marketing but the job site's way more fun.

19:22Summer or winter? Summer. I love the green. I love fishing, hiking, all of that. Steak or barbecue? Oh, steak for sure. You can't beat it. How do you like yours done? Well done or medium well? How do you like it? God forbid I like it well done. I would have to go rare or medium rare. All right. That's what I'm talking about. yeah that's all i like mine too i like mine with some red in it i like i like it yeah i don't like

19:59music or podcasts i think you kind of yes it's it feels like i've done twice as much throughout the day if i'm listening to podcasts as i work and that's one of the benefits of working alone yeah you could kind of just plug in and and listen to what you want right and do about to go back to Yep. And I would say for young entrepreneurs, the B &I podcast is free. You don't have to be a member to listen to it. And that has also been a great source of wisdom. Okay. Shout out to the B &I podcast. We'll make sure to put a link in the description notes for people who are interested. Next one is business book or YouTube?

20:39I would go YouTube. It feels more personal. Work boots or sneakers? Work boots for sure. Sneakers feel like I'm going to get my foot chopped off. Yeah, especially for your line of work, yeah. Yep. Big equipment or hand tools? Big equipment beats it all day long. Even though it's heavy and sometimes a little awkward, it's a lot better than breaking my back in the sweat. Okay. Family time or vacation? Family time. I love a good vacation, but it feels a little too occupied, and I like that quality time. Yeah, that's true. I agree with that. Phone call or text? Phone call. You feel more direct. You get the point across in a much more emotional way, and I can hear your voice inflection.

21:30Agreed, agreed. One word if somebody was to describe you. Optimistic, which you have to be in the entrepreneurial world. Okay. One word that describes your business. Integrity Explain that a little bit Why you chose integrity I would say that I mean from a young age my dad Has shown integrity at every point that it matters And that's something I value a lot And so That means doing the right thing Even though the hard That means doing the right thing Even though the easy thing Looks more appealing I love that Love that And one word, this is the last one here, one word you want people to remember after meeting you.

22:18Excited. I always want to put forward a person that is excited to work with you, that's optimistic about your job, and that is wanting to help you get the desired outcome. Okay. Okay. All right. Perfect. I love it. Yeah. So thank you for getting through that quick fire round there. That was good. That was really good. We got to see some of your reason why we do that. We'd like to see some of your wit and stuff like that and kind of how you think of things. life in general. So appreciate that. Yeah. Now, Luke, where do you see your industry? You know, I know there's a lot of talk of AI and self automation, a lot of things going on in the world right now.

22:53Where do you see your industry and your company headed over the next several years? Let's say, let's say by 2030, right? Because 2030, it sounds like it's a long ways away, but really that's only three and a half years away. Where do you see your company three and a half years? It's shocking how close that is. I would say, I know that there are some AI My software is already being installed in some heavy equipment for grading. Me personally, I don't think it's going to hinder my business. I don't see the robots we have right now being able to shovel a ditch to grade in three and a half years. So I don't think that'll be an issue for me or most blue collar jobs for that matter.

23:33And so I feel pretty secure in that area. And then the second part here, where do you see your company by 2030? what do you think you'll be at? Will you have several teams or trucks or vans? Where do you see your team in the next three and a half years? Yeah, I mean, of course I would like to be there. The goal would be at least one or two employees. I would like to go the W-2 route and then have multiple trucks and trailers, but we'll see what the Lord does grow in the business and how we can move forward from there in a way that best suits the company. Okay, okay, I love it. Now, Luke, if there was one thing you could change about your business in the next 90 days, what would it be and why?

24:18I think it would be the approach I have at preparing the job site. I've run into this hiccup of having materials take a lot longer to get there than I would like. And it seems to be a problem that I can't fix. So it's trying to figure out ways that I could either stockpile materials on site or have a backup supply somewhere. So just just finding an area that I won't have to wait on somebody else to get the job done. Now, let's say, you know, if we spoke again in 90 days, what would you want to be different? Like, like, would you already have that? So let's say let's say let's say 90 days from today.

25:00Do you think that problem will be solved? Well, in 90 days, around Halloween time, I guess you could say. Oh, absolutely. In 90 days, any problem that comes against you can be solved in my mind. I don't think there's a situation where I could have a problem with the business. And as long as I'm determined to get it done, it won't get solved. Okay. That's fair. That's fair. All right. So what is next for Palmer Excavation? And, you know, what should people be excited about coming up in the near future for your business? Well, for Palmer Excavation, I would say we're just going to grow as customers come to us.

25:37So that would mean taking the next customer as it comes and growing with the customers too. But for Palmer Excavation and more for me personally, is going to be marriage and learning how to start to juggle running a business, investing time, energy, emotions there, and also learning how to start a life together. I know that's huge because now you're going to be combined with someone else so you know kind of 50-50 so and you said it was August 17th right? Correct yes so it's a fun story we met each other when we were eight and nine years old at a library and it's grown since there so I've known her and her family for 11 years.

26:20wow okay well congratulations august 17th we're recording this at the almost the end of july here so it's in a you know basically what two or three weeks now at this point basically around the time on this episode here goes live you'll probably already you know if if not already done it'll be pretty close to to you know making it official so congratulations again luke on that and hope everything best for you in the near future so yeah so again i really appreciate you coming on luke it It was great talking with you, learning more about your business and learning more about your story. Really appreciate you coming on the podcast today.

26:52Do you have any last words for any entrepreneurs? Let's say a young entrepreneur is listening to the podcast. I know you kind of talked about this a little bit earlier, but let's say a young entrepreneur is listening to the podcast today and they're thinking, man, I have this business idea and I just can't make that leap. They're feeling stuck or overwhelmed. What's a piece of advice you'd want to give to that young entrepreneur? Yeah, so I would just say keep your chin up. Always be optimistic. If you don't have a faith in the Lord, seek one out and trust him to provide for you at every turn in the business.

27:23Expect that you'll be broke as an entrepreneur, especially a young entrepreneur. You'll be broke more times than you're at profit when you're starting out a business. And you just need to learn to be okay with that. But also don't take that as a failure. Take that as a growth opportunity and assess the situation. See, okay, so I underbid a job here. Where can I go from there? How can I improve? Take every failure, not as a failure, but as a learning opportunity to improve yourself and your business. Also, don't let anyone look down upon you for your age. The Bible says in Jeremiah not to have older people look down upon you for your age.

28:05So I take that very literally, that there's two parts to that. Not to allow that, but also not to give someone a reason for that. So that's where I take growing your credentials and trying to grow yourself as fast and as much as possible. So I would say start listening to podcasts in your free time. Free time is great, and it's good, and you should have a lot of it. But throughout a workday, you should be busy. and figure out ways. If your hands are working, your ears are. So figure out how to make your ears work for you as well. Okay, I love that. That was excellent advice, Luke. Thank you very much.

28:44You are wise beyond the years. You really are. So I want you to know that for sure. Yeah, yeah, no problem at all. So Luke, again, thank you for coming on. What is the best way for listeners to connect with you or reach you in case they're interested? Well, my Facebook profile I post on there pretty regularly is just Palmer Excavation. My website also is just Palmer Excavation. I'm working out a couple of kinks with that right now with my service provider and should be up shortly by the time of this. And I would say, yeah, just Facebook and my website for now. It's palmerexcavation.com. Okay. All right.